Closings spur O'Malley, Menino to vow joint effort
Seek new sites for service programs
Fearing that the closing of more than a dozen Catholic parishes in Boston will terminate essential social services that have operated for years in those churches, Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley have pledged to find new homes for the programs, the mayor said yesterday.
Menino said the two have had several private telephone conversations during the past week about the closures, and the mayor said he told O'Malley that it is important that the church closings do not bring an end to programs that have operated in the churches.
"We're talking about everything from CYO [Catholic Youth Organization] basketball to services for senior citizens and AA meetings," Menino said. "These churches are more than places of worship. They are community services centers for many of these neighborhoods."
He said he was appointing a citizens' commission to work with Catholic Charities, which oversees the placement of all social services throughout the Boston Archdiocese, on relocating the programs.
The Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, spokesman for the archdiocese, said that after discussing the matter with his cabinet, O'Malley agreed with the Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, president and treasurer of Catholic Charities, that the archdiocese should work with Menino to find suitable locations for the services in the closing parishes.
"We agree that these important services should not be lost and the archbishop has given his blessing" to the church working with Menino's office on the task, Coyne said.
He confirmed that Menino and O'Malley had spoken before and after O'Malley's church closings announcement Tuesday. Menino declined to provide more specifics about the conversations with O'Malley. The mayor said that he was heartened that more churches had not been closed in Boston.
STEPHEN KURKJIAN 